Fans of either Smith will be sorely disappointed. The elder never before appeared this listless on screen, and the younger misplaced his unforced rapport with the camera that made the Karate Kid reboot so impressive. Only Shyamalan delivers what moviegoers expect from him, and that's a shame.

Were Shyamalan and Smith deliberately invoking the terror — now omnipresent in urban African-American communities — of lethal asthma attacks in children? I’m not sure how I feel about something so real and so wrenching in the context of a Grade D (unfit for human habitation) sci-fi picture like After Earth.

For the most part it is an uninteresting slog alleviated only by the occasional unintended laugh and moments of visual beauty. Mr. Shyamalan generally torpedoes his movies with overweening self-seriousness.

Running, or stumbling, only 90 minutes, After Earth may lack the neck-swiveling awfulness of Shyamalan’s "The Last Airbender," but it quickly sinks in its logorrheic solemnity. The movie makes "Oblivion" seem as jolly a romp as "Spaceballs," and gives neither Shyamalan nor Smith much to smile about.

Jaden is fine at running, jumping, fearful trembling, and affecting steely resolution. He doesn't yet have his father's charisma; perhaps to help him out, dad opted not to bring that charisma to the set.

Shyamalan is clearly a director-for-hire here, his disinterest palpable from first frame to last. Nowhere in evidence is the gifted "Sixth Sense" director who once brought intricately crafted setpieces and cinematic sleight-of-hand to even the least of his own movies.

You can’t blame Will Smith for wanting to give his son a leg up in the business. Maybe one day Jaden will have his father’s career — and his ability to carry a movie. For now, it’s a little premature to ask him to bear the weight of this soggy, waterlogged “Earth” on his skinny shoulders.

The young Smith has energy, but not the acting chops. And he's no miracle worker. The burden of carrying this dull, lifeless movie is just too much. And it's hell on an audience. It's not a good sign when you sit there thinking – Make. It. Stop.

He's done it again. M Night Shyamalan has done it again. Again. Done it. Again. He has given us another film for which the only appropriate expression is stammering, gibbering wonder that anyone can keep making such uncompromisingly terrible movies with such stamina and dedication.

After Earth stupefies us with nonsense, such little thought and logic went into this idea that it can’t even be considered a rough draft, this is a movie almost daring an audience to emotionally detach throughout. For shame!

more and more it seems as if sixth sense was an anomaly
and jaden smith couldn't act his way out of a paper bag
this was disappointing butmore and more it seems as if sixth sense was an anomaly
and jaden smith couldn't act his way out of a paper bag
this was disappointing but not unexpected…Full Review »

M Night is a very ambitious director, he only had one ambition, that is to become the worst director of all time. So he started from top toM Night is a very ambitious director, he only had one ambition, that is to become the worst director of all time. So he started from top to bottom, From Sixth sense to Last airbender, From good to worst. He has improved a lot for the past 10 years, he has mastered how to make a worse movie! So this is another which emphasizes that he is the worst director of 21st century!…Full Review »

The combination of Hollywood nepotism and a quickly fading directorial star provides the backbone for the futuristic sci-fi lack-of-adventureThe combination of Hollywood nepotism and a quickly fading directorial star provides the backbone for the futuristic sci-fi lack-of-adventure yarn "After Earth."In just his second picture since 2008, Will Smith teams with fellow Philadelphian M. Night Shyamalan, who is working from a story written by Smith, and a script by Gary Whitta "The Book of Eli" (2010). The once-revered auteur has long since fallen from grace, to the extent that his name was notably absent from any of the film's advertising. However, "After Earth" has problems that go far deeper than Shyamalan's bland tone and lethargic pacing. The movie is rarely fascinating, incredibly pedestrian, and curiously unimaginative.

Shyamalan wastes no time commencing his narrative gimmick by announcing the rules of the story. It has been a thousand years since Earth self-destructed, ravaged by natural disasters and a deteriorating environmental infrastructure. The surviving humans evacuated the planet, settling on a new home known as Nova Prime. For 13-year-old Kitai (Jaden Smith), who is training to become a ranger like his often absent father, General Cypher Raige (Will Smith), he worries that he will let his dad down if he doesn't follow in his footsteps.

The elder Raige decides to bring him along on his last mission before he intends to retire. En route, a meteor shower damages the spacecraft, causing it to crash-land on the now-uninhabitable Earth. With the rest of the crew dead and Cypher badly injured, it is up to Kitai to travel 100 kilometers across the harsh and wild landscape to find the tail of the ship and retrieve the beacon that will send help their way. If he doesn't succeed, father and son will perish.

The special effects are adequate, but are noticeably fake compared to other effects-driven films like "Star Trek into Darkness" (2013) or "Oblivion" (2013). The film tries to tackle, on the most superficial level, the rites of passage. But with such a bland story and weak performances, the underlying meaning in the film only leads to indifference.

Jaden Smith, who was decent in "The Karate Kid" (2012), completely falls flat in his performance for this role. The complete lack of emotional range stifles any of the hopelessly unimaginative screenplay's contrived father/son drama. The elder Smith may have a story credit here, but "After Earth" is not only an obvious attempt to keep his son relevant, but it is also a by-the-numbers survival story that never manages to surprise or excite despite an endless array of possibilities.

"After Earth" feature's excessive CGI effects that rarely impresses, an A-list actor sitting on the sidelines, symbolism as obvious as the narrative is predictable, and is relentlessly uneventful. On a positive note for Mr. Smith, it's not nearly as bad as the completely forgettable "Wild Wild West" (1999).…Full Review »